I’ve seen one or two of these double-headed horse mugs over the years and have always wondered about them so I’m glad that I’ve now had an excuse to do a bit of research on them. The mugs were made by an American company, Macbeth-Evans, who specialised in fine glassware, but were most famous for their depression-ware glass. These milk glass mugs were designed as shaving mugs, with most sites dating them to the 1930s. The period makes sense to me because the company was taken over by Corning in 1936, and no one seems to refer to the mugs as anything other than Macbeth-Evans. Obviously not many people shave with a brush and blade anymore, but for those few civilised folk out there who do then this is the missing accessory that you’ve been looking for! And for everyone else I think these mugs would make great cups for your bathroom (toothbrush, toothpaste etc), especially if you have a bit of a deco theme going on, but even if you don’t!

Note: the one mug is more of a white than the other, which is a light cream colour (see pics under ‘more’).

Mint puts up four new items every weekday. The first post goes up at 07h00, the second at 08h00 and the third and fourth at 08h30. You can subscribe to our daily email which goes out at around 09h00 by clicking on the pink envelope on the right hand side of the blog(more…)

How sweet are these vintage Royal Windsor cake plates? I’ve always had a soft spot for this shape of plate, and I love that colorful pattern with the bird perched on top of the tree! There’s some wear to the pattern, which looks like it’s been hand painted, but that’s to be expected given their age – most sites date these plates to the 1930s!

A lovely cheerful set that would make a wonderful addition to an eclectic dinner service.

Dimensions: Each plate measures 14.5cm long x 14.5cm wide

Price: R120 for the set of 6

Mint puts up four new items every weekday. The first post goes up at 07h00, the second at 08h00 and the third and fourth at 08h30. You can subscribe to our daily email which goes out at around 09h00 by clicking on the pink envelope on the right hand side of the blog

I suppose it’s just a bit of fun, but even so you don’t see quality novelty pieces like this very often these day, and if you do they cost a small fortune! I love the way the salt and pepper shakers sit at an angle to represent the ‘towers’ on a ship (I have no idea what the proper term is!) – it really does look like a fancy ocean liner! I think it’s chrome plated, with plastic liners for the shakers and the mustard pot. It has its original spoon, although the spoon doesn’t seem to be quite the same quality as the rest of the little ship. From what I’ve read it seems that this cruet set dates to the 1930s – not bad then for a set of shakers going on for 80 years!

Dimensions: 20cm long x 5.5cm wide x 6cm tall

Price: R220

Mint puts up four new items every weekday. The first post goes up at 07h00, the second at 08h00 and the third and fourth at 08h30. You can subscribe to our daily email which goes out at around 09h00 by clicking on the pink envelope on the right hand side of the blog(more…)

I’ve seen quite a few variations of this cream maker over the years, but none of them have really appealed to me. There was just something about this vintage Bel Cream Maker that really stood out – aside from it’s classic good looks (I love the yellow bakelite top, and the curve of the handle is so handsome!), it also seemed to be a much better quality compared to the more modern plastic versions that I’d seen before. The glass is nice and solid, and overall it seems to be really well made – I suppose it would have to be to have lasted nearly 80 years (the ‘Jubilee model‘ dates to George V’s silver jubilee in 1935). The idea is that you can make your own cream (or double cream – depending on how much butter you add!) by melting unsalted butter and full cream milk together (super healthy!) and pouring it into the bakelite top. Pumping the handle pushes the milk through to the glass bottom, and voila, you have your cream (which will thicken if you leave it in the fridge for a while). Of course it takes a fair bit of effort – definitely more effort than popping over to Woolies and grabbing a pint off the shelf – but for those odd occasions when you’re stuck at home and just have to have some cream for your apple pie – or perhaps even rarer, just feel the need to be uber domesticated, then you’ll be so glad you have this great little machine!

P.S. These cream makers can sell for a pretty penny – as much as 50 quid! Click here to see some other examples of the fabulous Bel Cream Maker.

Dimensions: 20cm tall x 10cm in diameter

Price: R130

Mint puts up four new items every weekday. The first post goes up at 07h00, the second at 08h00 and the third and fourth at 08h30. You can subscribe to our daily email which goes out at around 09h00 by clicking on the pink envelope on the right hand side of the blog(more…)

How elegant is this vintage Japanese coffee set? I particularly like the shape of the coffee pot which has a scalloped edge, and the most beautiful handle! I’d never seen the maker’s mark before, but it turns out that the letters ‘TTK‘ stand for Toyo Toki Kaisha, a company that was first established in 1917, and has strong ties to one of Japan’s more famous china exports, Noritake. In fact Toyo Morimura (one of the T’s in TTK), and his brother, Ichizaemon, were the founding partners of Noritake. TTK seems to have been an offshoot of Noritake, that later went on to specialise in sanware (a bit of a departure, but I suppose it’s all porcelain!), and still operates today under the name TOTO.

I’m not sure how old the set is? One site dates it to pre-1937 – I’m not sure that it’s quite that old, but it’s definitely got a bit of age to it! Impressive then that it’s in such great condition – bar the two missing cups and saucers, everything is not only present and accounted for, but also clean as a whistle!

Note:: The colour of the glaze is more amber than the orangey-red that it appears in the photos.

Mint puts up four new items every weekday. The first post goes up at 07h00, the second at 08h00 and the third and fourth at 08h30. You can subscribe to our daily email which goes out at around 09h00 by clicking on the pink envelope on the right hand side of the blog

I’m absolutely amazed at how expensive these flying ducks have become in recent years! Last week a set of three flying geese sold for just over R1000 on Bidorbuy (I kid you not!), and that’s not even bad compared to some of the UK prices – if this little 1930s Poole fella had his flying mates he’d be going for around 300 quid on one UK website – that’s more than R5000!! Luckily for me (and for you) I bought him by himself, so he wasn’t nearly as expensive. He’s really lovely though, and even flying solo will look great hanging on your wall. I have an assortment of birds and mirrors and all sorts of odd things hanging in my dressing area – it sounds pretty terrible, I know, but it actually looks quite lovely!

Dimensions: 13.5cm long x 10.5cm wide

Price: R140

Note: Mint puts up four new items every weekday. The first post goes up at 07h00, the second at 08h00 and the third and fourth at 08h30. You can subscribe to our daily email which goes out at around 09h00 by clicking on the pink envelope on the right hand side of the blog